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About Us

Founded in 1976, Learning Links is the brainchild
of Joyce Friedland and Rikki Kessler. As reading
teachers in a prestigious Long Island school
district, they decided that real literature, not
basals or skills lessons, should become the core
of their reading program. To do so, they created
study guides to accompany the literature.
Novel-Ties was their unique method of
incorporating literature into the curriculum. At
first, using Novel-Ties only in their own
classrooms, Joyce and Rikki soon realized that
other teachers wanted these guides for
differentiated instruction with several novels or
whole-class study of a single novel.

From its initial advertisement in 1981, when it
offered only twelve study guides, Learning Links
now publishes over 600 Novel-Ties study guides.
In fact, Learning Links provides everything
teachers need for literature-based reading
programs - books, study guides, audios, videos
and more. From humble beginnings, and with very hard work, Joyce and Rikki steered the business to its present status as a major bookseller to schools in the United States and abroad
Novel-Ties contain questions to ask, the important issues to discuss, and the organizational aids that help students get the most out of each book they read.

Staying close to the teachers who keep their business growing, Joyce and Rikki continue to select new study guide titles and develop book collections based on teacher requests online and at the professional conferences they attend as exhibitors.

Learning Links demonstrates its commitment to the best in literature for children and young adults
by developing and offering to educators around the world the teaching tools that make literature
accessible to students.